After plunging his hammer into Ego’s brain, Thor is hit by a psychic wave, forcing him to witness the long-ago birth of Ego.

Once, there was a culture facing extinction as their sun was going nova. They had no ability to escape via space travel, so instead they hatched a plan to shield themselves from the nova in suspended animation. However, there was an error in their calculations, and the nova flared before they were ready. The shielding was not in place, and one man named Egron (not to be confused with Igron), was not yet in suspended animation, and somehow the nova cause a transformation, combining the planet, the man, and the life force of the remaining two billion people into a single entity. That apparently is how one creates a living bio-verse that exists out of shift with our own universe. It is not clear if Ego then traveled to the Black Galaxy, or if the Black Galaxy formed around it.

Thor recovers from this vision and hits Ego’s brain some more, this time with energy blasts from Mjolnir. Galactus tells his allies that it is time for them to go. While Thor, Hercules and Firestorm were keeping Ego distracted, Galactus bolted some Sidereal engines onto Ego, and set him blasting off into space uncontrollably, neutralizing him as a threat.

The job now complete, Firestorm asks if he might now be freed from his servitude to Galactus. Galactus puts it on Thor: If Thor can find a replacement, Galactus will release Firestorm. Thor suggests the Destroyer, and so they retrieve the supremely powerful creation Odin had created in order to defend Asgard, and give it to Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. It was right where they had left it.

“In Search of… Ego!” And now a return to former glory– produced in all its pom and panoply by Gerry Conway, writer * Rich Buckler, artist/ inking: Joe Sinnott/ lettering: John Costanza/ coloring: P. Goldberg/ Roy Thomas, editor

It has become clear that Ego the Living Planet is once again a hostile force, and possibly insane. Thor, Hercules and Firestorm fight the creations of Ego until they find a crevice that leads deep within Ego. They travel downward into the very center of Ego, where they find the giant brain of Ego the Living Planet. Thor smashes it with his hammer. It explodes.

Galactus returns to Earth in order that he might parlay with Thor. It seems that recently Galactus made a scond attempt to feed upon Ego the Living Planet, only to be soundly defeated.

The Ego that Galactus describes is an insane creature of pure rage. Galactus asks Thor and Hercules to join him in an attack against Ego. Thor speculates that Tana Nile’s act of harvesting Ego Prime may have driven the Living Planet insane, and agrees to accompany Galactus to investigate his claims. Hercules decides to tag along.

The two gods, Firestorm, and Galactus together travel to the Black Galaxy. Ego senses Thor and immediately deems him a traitor, and begins attacking the ship. Thor and his allies fend off the assault and land on the surface of Ego.